The Star-Ledger reports that Newark Mayor Cory Booker and the New Jersey Devils are trying to assemble investors to buy the Nets basketball team from development firm Forest City Ratner.

Should the Nets be sold—Forest City denied that the team is for sale—it would presumably kill the more than $4 billion Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, developed by Forest City under the premise that a new Frank Gehry-designed arena would be created for the Nets.  read more »

The notoriously press-shy Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner is due to appear on NY1 tonight at 8:30, going one-on-one with reporter Budd Mishkin.

The folks at NY1 have sent us over a brief teaser quote from Mr. Ratner:

We need jobs, we need shopping that's appropriate, and the right price and quality goods, supermarkets that provide food of quality and well priced, we need housing, and the architecture is important but it's not that important.

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Metropolitan Transportation Authority executive director Lee Sander seems a bit uncertain about the $100 million that developer Forest City Ratner owes the agency for Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards project. He had this to say earlier this month in a capital program “webinar” (no, we don’t quite know what that word is either), responding to a question about the MTA’s current capital plan:

There is $100 million associated with the sale of Atlantic Yards, and many of you have read in the newspapers some of the difficulty Forest City is having with that development, so hopefully that will proceed, but we want to make sure that that happens—but we’re concerned about that.

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Last night, City Councilman and candidate for Brooklyn borough president, Bill de Blasio, called for a moratorium on demolition at the Atlantic Yards footprint until developer Bruce Ratner outlines “what will be built when and confirms affordability,” Brownstoner and Gowanus Lounge reported this morning.

Mr. de Blasio told a meeting of Brooklyn bloggers that he was “livid” about Mr. Ratner’s recent admission in The New York Times that the Miss Brooklyn office tower and residential buildings Mr. Ratner planned to build at Atlantic Yards were stalled due to trouble finding financing, and said he cannot support an “arena-only plan.”  read more »

Another scene from Thursday evening's protest outside the Brooklyn Museum of Art against Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner.

The big protest against Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner went off Thursday evening outside of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, which was honoring Mr. Ratner inside for his philanthropy. Above is a nattily dressed protestor (it was black-tie inside and outside--get it?!) snapped by Observer photo editor Nicole Brydson. More to come.

Tonight's the night! Opponents of the Atlantic Yards project plan to protest outside of the Brooklyn Museum of Art because the museum's honoring developer Bruce Ratner. Black tie is optional (it's not inside the museum) but, please, according to organizer Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, bring your own pickets!  read more »

The developers of Brooklyn’s $4 billion-plus Atlantic Yards project, Forest City Ratner, tried to assuage fears about the stalled development in a conference call with investors today, saying they are committed to the success of the project in the long term. The call was held by Forest City Enterprises, the parent company of Forest City Ratner.  read more »

Property owners and tenants filed an appeal late yesterday in U.S. Supreme Court for their case contesting the use of eminent domain in the $4 billion-plus Atlantic Yards project, an action that legal experts have said is likely to be the final chapter for the federal lawsuit, first filed in late 2006.

Even a favorable Supreme Court ruling for the plaintiffs (which would require a decision by the Court to hear the case in the first place) would not necessarily stop the use of eminent domain—it would only allow for the case to reach the trial phase.

If the lawsuit is dismissed, Matthew Brinckerhoff, attorney for the owners and tenants, said that there would still be an option to file an eminent domain case in New York State court.  read more »

Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn is inviting Atlantic Yards opponents to grab their pickets (and don formal dress if they so desire) to protest the Brooklyn Museum’s decision to honor the developer Bruce Ratner at its annual $1,000-a-plate Brooklyn Ball, which DDDB calls an “affront to Brooklyn communities.”

Kayne West will perform at the Thursday night gala celebrating the Forest City Ratner CEO—described as “an upstanding corporate citizen” and a “sing  read more »